Double-Decker Buses Could Soon Hit NYC Streets

NEW YORK, NY — New Yorkers may not have to go across the pond to ride a double-decker bus. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to test the behemoth vehicles on city streets as it looks to overhaul the city's ailing bus system.

A double-decker bus will soon start running on Staten Island as the MTA evaluates the feasibility of operating them in New York City, MTA Bus Company President Darryl Irick said.

That's just one part of a "Bus Action Plan" unveiled Monday aimed at increasing speeds, reliability and ridership on the vast but notoriously slow bus network that carries 2 million New Yorkers each day.

"This is an evolution, but I’d also like to think it’s a revolution, because we really are proposing the complete top-to-bottom transformation of our bus network," New York City Transit President Andy Byford said.

With more than 300 routes and 5,700 buses, New York City's bus system is the largest in North America and among the slowest in the world. Buses travel just 5.7 MPH on average in Manhattan and spend 20 percent of ther time loading and unloading passengers, Irick said.

The MTA plans to redesign the entire bus network by 2021 to account for demographic changes and provide stronger service, Irick said.

While that effort is underway, he said, transit officials will look to remove bus stops that few riders use and improve the routes with the highest ridership and worst traffic congestion, he said.

MTA officials want to expand the use of "transit signal priority" technology, which helps buses get through traffic lights more easily but is currently used on just 11 routes.

The MTA plans to install necessary devices on every bus by 2020, Irick said. The effort will require help from the city Department of Transportation, which said last year that it would implement the technology at more than 1,000 intersections and 15 new routes by 2020.

Transit officials plan to work with the NYPD to target drivers who inhibit bus traffic by blocking bus lanes or stops, Irick said. New state legislation lets the MTA install cameras on buses to enforce those laws on its Select Bus Service routes, but the agency wants authority to use them across the city, Irick said.

Riders will also be able to board all buses through any door by 2020, when each bus will use the MTA's new tap-to-pay fare system, Irick said. The agency will also explore a totally cashless fare system that could help cut boarding times even more, he said.

In addition to testing double-decker buses, transit officials plan to eventually roll out a zero-emissions bus fleet, Irick said. The MTA is currently testing 10 all-electric buses and will buy 60 more in its 2015-2019 Capital Program.

The MTA unveiled the bus overhaul plan after a persistent campaign from transit advocates, who argue the system's failures disproportionately harm working-class New Yorkers with limited access to transporation.

Advocates said the plan is a big step toward fixing a languishing system that's facing its own crisis alongside the city's struggling subways. The buses recorded 100 million fewer trips in 2016 than in 2008, according to a report City Comptroller Scott Stringer released last year.

"After years of declining ridership on our buses, this plan is exactly what we need to reverse that decline and get New Yorkers back on the bus again," said Nick Sifuentes, the executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

(Lead image: The MTA plans to start testing double-decker buses like this one to see whether it's feasible to run them in the city. Photo by Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit